Just Friends
by Antigone2
Summary: Hanazakari no Kimitachi E... Hanakimi. As hard as it is being a girl in an all-boys school, it's a million times harder to be a boy in love with your roommate...


Yo yo, wuzzup?! Antigone in DA HOUSE!!  
  
Um… right. --; Anyway, this is a little ficlet I wrote after reading the first two volumes of Hana Kimi, which I am now completely addicted to, have all 15 volumes, read most of them… but I hadn't when I wrote this. I don't know how obvious this is? But there is a reason this is only on my website. ^_^  
  
*PUH-lease* if you read this drop me a line, just letting me if you liked it, hated it, was indifferent. Because this won't have many readers, HanaKimi having a smaller fanbase than most of the fics I write.. so every reader is super-precious! That's you, yes you, you sweetheart reading this right now. Please write me.  
  
Oh yes, it's total WAFF. ;_; I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to be this way. Please don't shoot me if you get cavities.  
  
Just My Friend  
  
By Antigone, 2000  
  
Ashiya Mizuki bit her lip, opening her half-lidded brown eyes to stare at the ceiling. The dorm was shaded, the sunlight flitered out by the curtain she tied together in front of the window. The door opened and closed quietly, her roommate trying extra careful to be quiet as he padded across the floor in his stocking feet, putting his books on the floor.  
  
Sano… she sighed, a smile flittering across her face quickly. Even after placing him on such a high pedistol and admiring him as a fan, it was so easy to just look at him like a friend. And a good one at that.  
  
When she had begged a headache that morning, he had teased her lightly, "You know, guys usually don't let little things like a headache get them down," he had placed one warm long-fingered hand on the back of her head, and for a moment her heart jumped, until he began to ruffle her messy short hair.  
  
"Well," she answered, dodging him and sitting carefully on her bed "it's a bad headache, and see if I take notes for you next time you are sick."  
  
"Alright, alright," he said, in a tone of voice that clearly revealed he had planned on helping her out in the first place, "see ya."  
  
After the door had closed behind him, Mizuki let her hand fall from her non- aching head and drop to her stomach. It would be so much easier to be a boy, she reflected as she climbed onto her bed, if it weren't for this time of the month. Usually it was fine enough she could make it to classes and act normally, but this month stress over the track meet and her brother's visit combined with lack of sleep made her feel that, cramps or not, she would still really need a day off. The hours passed quickly as she slept on and off, and read some novels for her literature class.  
  
But now that the afternoon sun was setting, Mizuki was almost asleep.  
  
"Hey," a soft voice whispered, knuckles gently pressing against her forehead, "you awake?"  
  
"I am now," she told Sano dryly, opening one eye and then blinking in surprise and sitting up.  
  
The boy's dark eyes probed hers as he held out a tall glass of water to her.  
  
Slowly she reached out and accepted the warm water and two little pills he handed her.  
  
"Here," he said, nonchalantly, "I got Umeda-sensei to give me some painkillers for you."  
  
"A-arigotu," she said, looking at the gel tablets in her hand. Medication wasn't allowed in the dorms without forms, and it had never occurred to her to go to Umeda-sensei with this sort of ailment. After all, he knew her secret but he was still a man! She blushed slightly, and quickly swallowed the pills and downed the water, grateful for a moment to get away from Sano's steady gaze. But he watched her carefully until she handed the glass back to him.  
  
"Your headache any better?" he said just as softly, and for a moment she felt her voice would pierce the silence between them, wondered at something in his eyes she just… couldn't… place…  
  
"A little," her eyes dropped, "but, yeah, I'm really tired."  
  
Boku wa. The masculine form of speech was coming more and more easliy to her, like when she had first switched to English as a child. Still, at times it was almost too easy to say 'watashi'… the boy's school uniform, the short hair, the lower voice… when had it stopped being so stressful? Other things had come and taken the place of the constant fear of being discovered… other things…  
  
Falling back onto the pillow, Mizuki felt the pill's drowsy haze fall over her, and felt herself start to drift to sleep, while the sound of Sano writing on some homework drifted across the room.  
  
She meant to thank him for getting notes for her, meant to be very touched at the gesture of the medicine, meant to make some sort of joke about being an invalid. But right now his presence was so comforting, it was too easy just to sleep.  
  
This friendship was unlike any she had ever had. Sure, back in America she had been friends with many boys, but never like this. It was different, being a girl, she guessed, they related to you based on that. Here, with all her friends, she was quite literally, 'one of the guys'.  
  
Still, with Sano, there was a connection she had never felt before. Sano himself, something between them that didn't need words… a connection that she could never imagine having with someone else, different even from with Julia. He understood her. Confided in her. Teased her, spent time with her, stood up for her.  
  
It must be because to him, I am a boy. The thought sleeply made its way through Mizuki's mind. This friendship that is so different, like nothing else I've felt, because we are just like two guys. That must be it… because we are… like brothers…  
  
Sleep came softly and deeply.  
  
  
  
Light, feathery hair floated across her forehead, her breath deep and even and stirring the strands like breeze from the window.  
  
Sano forced his eyes back to copying his notes. 'That silly girl,' he thought, without malice.  
  
That silly girl…. Why was she so different? What he had almost let slip to her a while back, that he didn't really know how to talk to girls, was entirely true. So then, how come he could talk to her? Was it because, with her short haircut, school uniform, boyish figure… it was easy to forget she was a girl?  
  
No. It wasn't easy. Not anymore.  
  
Before, it had been very easy to think of Mizuki has a boy. Sano felt the heat of shame rise to his face remembering how he once walked into the bathroom while she was showering, so normal an occurrence except that she was a girl…. An amazing girl who could outrun anyone in the track team, stand up to bullies, outwit older brothers, and travel across the whole world just to go to school with her favorite track star.  
  
A girl who encouraged him to jump again.  
  
A girl he could not get out of his mind.  
  
'Oh god,' he thought, pressing his hand to his forehead, brushing long dark strands of hair out of his face, 'please god, tell me I am not falling for my roommate.'  
  
He couldn't have feelings for Mizuki! Mizuki was a "boy", just a friend, just a classmate… right?  
  
  
  
Sano walked up to his sleeping friend, studying her peaceful features as she slept. How could she be fooling everyone? This was no boy's face he was looking at. Her long eyelashes, delicate cheekbones, full lips… it was so feminine, so beautiful. He just didn't understand. Did people just see what they wanted to?  
  
After all, when did he realize the skinny, outspoken young man from America wasn't all that "he" seemed? Sano didn't remember, felt like it had snuck up on him slowly, like the sun rising.  
  
He put his hand carefully against the side of Mizuki's face, then her forehead, checking for fever, struggling not to notice how soft her skin was.  
  
'Oh no,' he thought, his face inches from hers, 'I think I am falling for my roommate…'  
  
For this girl…  
  
This amazingly different extraordinary girl…  
  
Sano lowered his forehead to hers, feeling her breath stir against his face, certain that any moment she'd wake up and he'd be caught, couldn't explain what he was doing…  
  
Her lips parted slightly, she stirred, and before he knew what he was doing he started to lower his mouth to hers… one hand pressed palm open on the bed beside her, the other still brushing her face…  
  
Just as his lips barely brushed hers a loud knock echoed through the dorm, and Sano jumped like he had been burned, backing away so quickly he almost ran into his desk.  
  
Mizuki just moaned slighty and rolled over.  
  
"Yo! Sano! Mizuki!" Nakatsu's voice filtered through the door, "you guys gonna eat? We're starving here."  
  
Sano pulled the door open to a gaggle of his friends, and Nakatsu's grin. Sano scowled.  
  
"Where's Mizuki?" Nakatsu's eyes searched over the other boy's shoulder into the dark room.  
  
"Sleeping." Sano answered shortly.  
  
"Is he okay?" someone else asked.  
  
"No, he has a headache," Sano was beginning to feel like Mizuki's manager or something. He felt angry, upset at himself. Annoyed at Mizuki for making him act this way. Mizuki was a cute kid, she was his friend, his roommate… like his sister. That's all…  
  
A little voice in his head felt it had to remind him that guys did not usually try to kiss their sisters, but he shut it up quickly, closing the door behind him.  
  
"I'll bring him back something," Nakatsu said, looking concerned "hope he feels better."  
  
"Well, I hope it's not catching," Sano said, face expressionless, "I don't need to get sick on top of everything else."  
  
"Sweet," Nakatsu remarked dryly, "he's just so lucky to have a friend like you."  
  
The dark mood over Sano's head refused to lift, even when the word 'friend' circled around in his mind, trying to match with what he felt for Mizuki. It would make it so much easier, to just be her friend. He was sure that with Mizuki's unique situation, it'd be hell for him if he fell in love with her.  
  
And, goddammit, shouldn't he care?  
  
Meanwhile, Mizuki slept on, a small smile across her pretty face. Transfering to a boy's school and making it almost two semesters, she thought in her sleep, who'd have thought it'd be this easy?  
  
~owari  
  
Wow was THAT a little piece of canon or what? --; WRITE ME!! 


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